Editor’s note: How mighty fine our new artwork is! As with previous Abunai! editions, our artwork is designed by the incredible Howling Riot. Howling Riot consists of artist Els and scenarist Renincy. They are an important part of Abunai! and have been ever since 2013, when they created their first poster for us.

As I’m one of those people who cannot draw if her life depended on it and am insanely curious (dangerous combination), I just had to bug kindly request Els if she could tell me more about her artwork for Abunai!, including the 2018 poster. Our audience has a right to know!

Luckily, Els graciously agreed to an interview with yours truly. Without further ado, please read on to discover all the secrets behind Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia’s poster – Mariëlle, your ever so dutiful editor.

Els, could you please introduce yourself to our lovely audience?

“You shall bow before me for I am ..! Oh.. wait.. wrong personality. Ahem! Let’s try that again. I am a fulltime illustrator and comic artist. In artschool they told me I could never make it in life with drawing foxes and manga. And now it is nearly all I do for a living. I started drawing foxes in kindergarten as an emotional outlet. I did not fit in with my classmates very well. The first foxes I would start with were often sad or angry, but after a while the emotion leaves you and you start to draw happier foxes. I would basically draw myself back to happiness again.

In 2005 I started the doujin circle “Howling Riot” together with my best friend and awesome scenarist Renincy. What started out as a mainly shonen manga focused doujin group, gradually shifted to more and more animal inspired artwork. (Mostly foxes, wolves and tigers).

This is where Abunai! gets in the picture.

Since their mascot already used to be a fox and their previous artist was going to quit, they asked me if I could make the posters from then on, creating my own version of the Kitsune mascot.

Darkness Rising in 2013 was the first official poster by my hand.

Nowadays I also make the art for the crew shirts and the merchandise stand.

Other personal stuff/fun facts:

I usually work till late at night (‘till about 3 or 5 in the morning) so a nickname that is used often is “nightfox/nachtvosje”.

I love food (steak, salmon, hot Thai curries, sushi, penny waffles) and I collect alien-looking exotic fruits. I don’t really like drinking (the normal watery healthy stuff), so my friends often help me keep an eye on not getting too dehydrated. I do love saké, but that doesn’t help the dehydration part at all! XD

I used to sing professionally at weddings and memorials.

I am a huge fan of Dragonball Z, it inspired us to start Howling Riot.

As for physical exercise: I enjoy playing Pokémon Go and Stepmania. :p I also used to belly dance a lot. I haven’t had much time for it lately, but would love to pick it up again.

Me and Renincy are currently passionate about and working on a fox comic called “Ghosts of the Mangrove”. About a fox cub trying to use the forces of evil for doing good. (Because, what could go wrong?)

I draw best on music that is like a theme song for the characters I draw. If the character I draw is a psycho, I end up feeling pretty paranoid at the end of the night, haha.

Cosplaying and running a convention stand can be challenging. So no more body-paint cosplays for me while on stand duty/drawing commissions. I pick more convenient costumes nowadays. (I am wise now! Really! Believe me! :3)”

What inspired the concept of the poster? Did you have an idea from the start to go with the theme?

“Haha, one idea? I soon had 8 ideas to pick from! I tried my best to reduce it back to a maximum of 4 before introducing the sketches to pick from to Abunai!. The games theme has such a wide range of inspiration to pick from. In the final 4 I took a lot of inspiration from the Zelda games.

Next to that we also have a Final Fantasy/Okami inspired logo, Chrono Trigger inspired background islands, and small game parodies around the Kitsune from Kingdom Hearts, Pokémon Go, a 20 sided dice from roleplaying games, DDR arrows and a playing card on the back shield. The poster was mostly made on “Best Music Mix 2017- Best of EDM”.

For who looked closely at the 2016 “Beyond the stars” Abunai! Poster must have noticed a very angry alien chicken being carried by a big Mecha. It is angry since our naughty Kitsune has stolen its golden egg. (That is just what foxes do)

This universe ruling dark overlord chicken now has its own Facebook page where you can worship its feathered glory: “Majestic Space Chicken”.

Since Link likes to carry around angry chickens in the Zelda games I found this to be the perfect opportunity for the chicken to make his comeback to the big poster. He doesn’t seem to agree with his position of power in the poster tho.”

Does the final poster differ significantly from the first sketch?

“The final poster has stayed quite close to the original sketch. The biggest

differences are:

an extra floating island in the background

the added game icons on the back shield (and the back shield itself)

the sword having changed into a Kingdom hearts inspired key.

And of course many hours of changing the blobby impressions into detailed well-communicating elements.”

What was the biggest challenge in designing the poster?
“Painting the mountains in the background digitally has been my biggest challenge with this poster. All the previous posters have either been completely or partially painted manually on paper. This was the first time I made the whole poster digitally, using both Photoshop and Manga Studio.

There have been moments I considered going manual again, since it surely doesn’t respond the same as real watercolor, but I figured it out eventually. So this is the first time I was able to make a time-lapse video of how the poster was made. It is filmed by gradually making the 214 layers visible.”

What do you like most about the poster??

“The feeling of standing at the beginning of a whole new adventure. That feeling you can have at the start of a new game, or the first hour of just having arrived at an anime convention. Still, so many areas to explore, new experiences to find, beauty to see and people to meet.

That, and the angry chicken, being casually dragged along by our kitsune… I am truly looking forwards to his attempt to take revenge. ^^”

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Thank you Els for graciously answering my questions! Aside from this interview, Els was also more than kind enough to show us how she created our lovely 2018 poster. Is there anything she cannot do? Tune in next time to find out.

Abunai! will be attending Nishicon this weekend, February 23 – 25! Come and say konnichiwa to our lovely promo team in the dealer room.

They’ll provide you with information on our upcoming convention, Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia. We’ll also give away free copies of our 2018 poster. There’ll also be merchandise for sale, including our renowned Abunaai! condoms. Last but not least, we’re hosting a small contest with one very desired prize: an Abunai! 2018 VIP ticket.

Nishicon 2018 – Winter Wonderland is held from February 23 – 25 in Almelo. More information can be found on the official Nishicon website.

Abunai! will be attending YayCon this Sunday, February 11! Come and say hi to our lovely promo team in the dealerroom.

They’ll provide you with information on our upcoming convention, Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia. In fact, we’ll reveal the 2018 poster for the first time at YaYCon! Visit our stand to get your free poster. There’ll also be merchandise for sale, including our renowned Abunaai! condoms. Last but not least, we’ll have a contest where you can win a VIP ticket to Abunai! 2018.

YaYCon 2017 – Let’s get physical! is the eighth edition of YaYCon, an anime convention for Yaoi and Yuri fans. It will be held February 11 in Amersfoort. More information can be found on the official YaYCon website.

The last day of January is not too late for best wishes, is it? Hope your 2018 is off to a great start!

Abunai! is currently up and running and we’re working hard to give form to Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia. Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia will be held in the last full weekend of august, from August 24 – 26 at NH Koningshof in Veldhoven. The convention is still a few months away and while we’re looking forward, we’re also looking back on 2017. A lot changed in 2017. Behind the scenes, we went through a rigorous restructuring. Commissions were reclassified, functions remade and positions installed. Staff members left for new horizons. New staff joined the family. Among them, yours truly.

Mariëlle, getting ready to pilot the PR jaeger.

For those wondering who the mysterious editor behind the “Meet The Abunai! Staff” column was… Now that we’re talking – I suppose it’s time to finally introduce myself properly. Better late than never, right? So hi there, I’m Mariëlle. I take care of the content on the website (yes, some pages still need to be rewritten), social media content and comments (with support from visitor services), copywriting, press releases, press and influencer relations. Some internal communication here, most external communication there. I love it. I cannot stress enough how Abunai! is a foundation run by volunteers. Dedicated, hardworking, passionate folks who devote their spare time (whatever’s left of it) to organizing Abunai! But, it’s all for the greater good: presenting an amazing convention.

We”re proud of what we accomplished in 2017, and we’re gearing up for 2018 with determination in our hearts.

What can you, dear reader and future visitor, expect from these volunteers in 2018?

Our theme for 2018 is games. Video games, board games, tabletop games, card games… You get the idea. If it’s got ‘game’ somewhere in there, it’s welcome. We always tailor our events to our theme and 2018 is no exception. Our events commission and our media commission are working hard to prod, plan, and procure interesting parties to attend Abunai! 2018. Some exciting things are in the works, we promise and guarantee you!

Still, we’d love to hear from you if you have any event you’d like to see in particular. Please contact info@abunaicon.nl with the subject line “2018 suggestion” with information on what you’d like Abunai! 2018 to host and why.

On the other side of the staff, our design commission went back to work straight after Abunai! 2017: History in the Making ended – no rest for the wicked lovely! We’ll soon reveal the official 2018 artwork. Here’s a lil’ sneak peek to wetten your appetite:

We’ll also attend YaYcon 2018: Let’s Get Physical and Nishicon 2018: Winter Wonderland for promo purposes. You will find us in the dealerroom with promotional materials and merchandise. I know what you’re going to ask and yes, our famed and beloved Abunaai! condom will also be available for purchase 😉

Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia ticket sales will also open in the near future. We’ll announce the opening of the sale beforehand, so please keep a close eye on our website and our Abunai! Facebook page.

In addition, we’ll also announce the hotel room sale in the near future. The hotel room sale is handled by NH Koningshof, who make the call when bookings open. Of course, we’ll keep you up-to-date on our channels once we receive more information.

That’s all for now folks! Thanks for stopping by, hope you had a good read. Expect more updates, for we’ll make sure to keep you informed as the story of Abunai! 2018 develops.

At Abunai! 2017: History in the Making past and present met. We brought our visitors a convention honoring Japanese traditions, with classic events of the past. Allow us to take you back to Abunai! 2017 with our master piece of an opening movie. We know how much you enjoy our opening movies for their quality, witty dialogue, outstanding acting, beautiful cast and the dramatic tour de force of the plots.

The movie was first shown during the opening ceremony on Friday. Spinning a tale that traverses the ages, bringing past and present together as an opening act, it set the tone for the rest of our three-day festival. It was also shown during the ending ceremony on Sunday, for those unfortunate enough to miss the first glorious showing of this masterful epic.

The Abunai! team is delighted to announce the subtitle and theme of next year’s convention. We present to you lovely visitors in all its glory, Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia.

The theme of the 2018 convention is games. Video games, board games, card games, role-playing games, mind games… scratch that last one, but you get the idea. Anything to do with gaming! We’ll of course be focusing on the Japanese aspect of it all, but there’ll be something for every type of gaming fan next year.

Abunai! 2018: Tales of Kitsunia will be held in the last weekend of August, August 24 – 26. The convention will once again be held at NH Koningshof in Veldhoven.

More information on the program wil become available in the following months. Be sure to check our website and Facebook regularly for updates!